“Lizzie…”

Lizzie gasped, shaking herself out of the daze, lying on the cold floor of the lab. Something was tugging at her shoulder, oddly cool and plastic, deforming around her body even as it pulled at her. She rolled herself over, staring into the hollow neckline of Zoot, weak and collapsing from the gunshot. Memories of the last few moments clicked back into place, being thrown to the ground by the guard, just trying to reach-

“The ship’s going to explode!”

Tim’s voice caught her attention, Lizzie turning to look up at him. One of the security guards was landing blow after blow in his stomach, the other guard holding him firmly in place. As Tim cried out in pain and frustration, Lizzie felt like she could only watch, powerless to help. The soft tugging of Zoot dragged her thoughts back, turning to look at his outstretched sleeve, something lying there: black and crimson, its spiked surface shining under the fluorescent lights, looking to Lizzie like some sort of strange candy.

“Veenox Seven… chew this…” Zoot urged her, voice strained and fading, the nerplex falling from its sleeve as Zoot’s form collapsed, far too weak to maintain its shape. Lizzie’s gaze followed the tumbling nerplex, gingerly reaching out to pick it up, turning it around in her hand. She had no idea what it was, or why Zoot would think it so important, but in that moment it seemed she had little choice but to try it.

Tim’s eyes grew wide as he saw Lizzie picking up the nerplex, instantly recognising its distinctive form, remembering Martin’s warning to never mess with Veenox Seven. His mind flashed back to his own experience with the alien gum, the sight of those tentacles emerging from his arm, the feeling like his own body was rebelling against him… if that was bad, what would Veenox Seven do to Lizzie? He had to warn her, stop her, before she made a terrible mistake.

“Careful, Liz!”

Tim’s warning came too late. Before she could change her mind, Lizzie popped the gum into her mouth, rolling its spiked shape across her tongue to the back of the mouth, clamping down. Juices flowed out, the bitter taste of black pudding mixed with overripe strawberries, making her want to gag and spit the thing out again. Why had Zoot told her to chew this? Her thoughts raced, half expecting to shoot lasers from her eyes. She closed her eyes, focusing on her jaw, and kept chewing. More and more juice flowed into her mouth, its taste starting to shift, no longer so rancid and unpleasant but starting to taste more like a sort of candied pork. The more she chewed, the more delicious it became, the nerplex already working to alter her tongue, a change too subtle for Lizzie to notice. Even if they were going to die, at least her last meal would be a good one, she thought.

Lizzie’s body started to buzz with energy, the nerplex working its way to every cell in her body, beginning its work. All over, her muscles started to heat up, swelling slightly, growing stronger with each passing moment. Lizzie looked down in confusion, wondering why she suddenly felt so great, more energetic then she’d felt in years. Pleasure quickly gave way to fear as her muscles started to tense up, bones and joints suddenly aching as the changes began in earnest. Her right hand began to twitch involuntarily, fingers flexing and spasming. Her soft human skin slowly oddly clammy, shifting greener, tinged with yellow on her palm. Lizzie’s thoughts raced, wondering if she was imagining things, or if she’d been drugged, panic starting to set in.

Tim watched as Lizzie lifter her arm, an expression of fear and confusion written across her face, seeing her little finger pulling into her hand, the green flesh seeming to flow like liquid. His own experience with nerplex has been a strange but painless one, but the look on Lizzie’s face as she stared down at her contorting hand made him worry just how far she was going to change. “Spit it out!” he tried to shout, another blow from the guard knocking the air out of him, just another cry of pain.

Oblivious to Tim’s concern, Lizzie watched the changes progressing, flexing her alien hand as it grew stiff, changing muscles refusing to obey as the changes washed over them. Her ring and middle fingers soon pulled into her palm, leaving her with only her thumb and her index finger. As each digit faded away, she could feel the muscles inside shrinking and pulling back, a burning heat as muscles and ligaments unravelled under her skin. Her flesh crawled under her skin, flowing into her palm, up into her remaining digits. They bulged and twitched, skin writhing like water as the flowing muscles settled. In a daze, she tried to move them, watching new muscles shifting in alien patterns. Her movements were clumsy at first, the way her hand felt as alien as the way it looked, seeming less dextrous but far stronger than her old fingers.

Still staring at her right hand, she felt a now oddly familiar sensation in her left, its own changes beginning as it slowly shifted to match. Holding her hands together, she watched the changes more closely, the subtle way her flesh seemed to collapse, the almost hollow feeling as bones shrank, the slight pressure as muscles pushed into stretching skin. Some deep part of her was still terrified, but she focused on the feelings, uncomfortable but not painful, her mind starting to adjust to her alien metamorphosis. She lifted her hands, bones creaking and groaning, arms drawing outwards while the green skin flowed over them, turning shiny and mottled like a toad, glistening slightly under the fluorescent lights.

“What is happening to me…?” she whispered to herself, strangely enraptured by the changes even as her humanity slipped away.

A greater pressure grew inside Lizzie’s stomach, the sensation of organs and bones alike moving around, growing larger, converting to some strange alien anatomy. Her rib-cage started to bulge outwards, lungs doubling in size. For a while, her dress constricted her, becoming tight over her growing form. Alien flesh surged across her body, the same gleaming skin spreading and thickening across her body, turning shades of green and yellow. It was only a matter of time before her dress began to give way, the sounds of ripping fabric masked by the cracking of her bones and Tim’s cries of pain. Lizzie gasped, staring down at the exposed skin on her front, chest swelling slightly, rising further with each breath she drew. Just how far was she going to change?

She twisted about, her legs protesting a sudden rush of flesh in her thighs. They bulged and strained, pushing outwards, the fabric of her skirt bunching up around her hips. Muscles and tendons ached inside her, the swelling muscle - as powerful as it was - far outpacing the rest of her changing body. Her ankles and feet, so skinny and pink compared to the alien thighs, were forced outwards. Deep inside, her body burned, joints straining to keep her legs attached, her hip bone slowly forced outwards, adapting to her her new legs.

Lizzie cried out in pain and frustration, almost swallowing her gum in the process. Though she didn’t know the extent of what nerplex could do, or the dangers of it, she’d chewed enough earth gum to instinctively roll it into a corner of her mouth. She reached down to her legs with alien arms, pointed claws tipping each digit pressing into toughened skin, leading the frustrating feeling of being unable to scratch an itch. Her legs seemed huge, reminding her of a frog the way her thigh muscles bulged with barely restrained strength, the rest of her body dwarfed by them.

Desperate for some relief, she rolled back onto her front, chest heaving with ragged breaths. Behind her, Lizzie’s legs continued to push out, shoes scraping across the metal floor. She could feel her feet growing larger, her toes pressed against the inside of her shoes, pressure building, testing the leather to its limits. Deep in her chest, alien blood was starting to rush through her arteries, her organs still adapting to cope with her growing body. Air rushed into her chest, ribs stretching out to inflate growing lungs, a dizzying feeling as her brain was flooded with oxygen, bringing a strange sense of euphoria to her changes.

“You’ve got to listen! It’s going to explode!” Tim cried out, still desperately struggling to free himself. The guard in front of him blocked his view of Lizzie, leaving him uncertain how far she’d changed, even if his thoughts weren’t preoccupied with convincing the guards of the danger they were all in. Behind the guard, Lizzie thrashed about, her green calves and straining shoes all Tim could clearly see.

“Tim…” Lizzie tried to cry out, her mouth barely responding. Her face felt like it was tensing up, her jaw suddenly too large for the rest of her head, her neck bulging with alien muscles. Dragging her way forward with alien hands, she arched her back involuntarily, hunching forward as its growth outpaced the rest of her. She could sense the bulk of her body as she continued to grow, her body getting heavier with each passing moment, growing thick with solid muscle and dense bone. Across her back, ridges formed, new bones emerging and straining against toughening skin, new muscles knitting together. Lizzie tried to focus on the sensations, trying to guess what was emerging from her back, altered flesh stretching out the straps of her dress. All she could really tell was that it was thick and bony, twitching about as cool air played across her raw and stretching skin.

Her spine continued to grow, pushing out behind her bulbous rear, flesh and bone knitting together to form a new tail. It thrashed about behind her, uncoordinated and uncontrolled, her brain barely keeping up with the changes to her limbs to accommodate the movement of a new limb. It stretched out behind her, brushing and lifting against her dress. The weight of it was pulling her back, tilting her body upright, supporting her heavy body better on her changed hips. The tail dragged across the cold floor, the tip of it scraping across, growing thick and heavy with dense bone, forming a crude sort of club.

She blinked a few times, glancing back at the thing, looking over the ridges forming across her back. The end of her tail fanned out slightly, thick bone spread out into three spurs under her flesh. She concentrated on it, imagining herself moving it just as she moved an arm, and the thing twitched, then swung. The unexpected strength of her tail and the weight of the club whipping around forced her body to roll, making her cry out. She paused a moment, focusing on her breathing, calming herself. For everything that had changed so far, this was the most intense, not merely different but new.

Lizzie’s cries caught Tim’s attention, her tail swinging around behind the guard, a momentary flash of green. Confused, he tried to lean sideways in the guard’s grip, wondering what was happening, before another well placed punch to his gut dazed him, knocking thoughts of Lizzie out of his mind.

Whatever was growing from Lizzie’s back surged outwards, her shoulder blades pushed aside by the new growths, new bones and joints forming. At first, they grew out straight, the thick bone inside and solid muscle seeming to flow and crawl under the stretching skin. Reaching a foot in length, Lizzie could feel something hanging from the ends of them, soft and loose, its weight swinging this way and that as the new limbs twitched behind her. She craned her neck, finding it more and more difficult to turn behind her, catching sight of the reddish brown join where the solid limb abruptly changed to a flexible, tentacle-like limb.

Two remained fairly small, the tentacles barely a meter in length, the tips flaring out slightly at the end to form spade shapes. If she’d been given time to consider them, she might have thought they were purely for balance, or perhaps vestigial. The other two growths, nearer her shoulders, thicker and stronger, continued to grow, hanging back down either side of her, coiling on the floor even as muscle continued to grow inside them. In many ways, they seemed similar to her new tail, strong lengths of thick muscle and flesh. But where her tail ended in a club, these ended in a broad paddle, the skin seeming to rithe, tickling slightly as suckers formed, reminding Lizzie of a squid’s tentacles.

“First a tail… now these?” she thought to herself. After the experience using her tail for the first time, Lizzie knew better than to try to do too much with her new tentacles straight away. For a moment, she just looked at them, mentally reaching out to focus on the feelings from their muscles and joints, the air against their skin, the cool of the floor against the dragging ends. After a moment, she carefully tried to shift a tentacle, smiling as it gently swayed, coiling it up as she became more confident.

Her tentacles dropped as sharp pain brought Lizzie’s attention back to her feet, feeling her toes - now only two on each foot - pressing harder against the inside of her shoes. She flexed her feet, tears appearing in the white leather as sharply pointed toes awkwardly emerged. With the pressure released, her heels slipped out, stretching out longer. Her legs felt clumsy and awkward, proportions shifting slightly, joints adjusting to a more digitigrade stance, her ruined shoes firmly lodged on her changed feet.

Clambering up, now instinctively using her new tentacles to support herself, she took a few hesitant steps forward with her new legs, claws digging into the solid floor as if it was nothing. A rush of exhilaration spread through her body as she looked down, seeing the power contained in her new body under her thick green skin. Her shoulders bulged, rolling out and sideways, flesh crawling as new bones fitting into place. Lizzie’s arms slide around her barreled chest, hanging down, her new tentacles shifting around to her sides - all the better for lashing out, she knew.

The sensations from her new limbs grew more and more vivid with each passing moment, nerves knitting throughout her changed body, Lizzie’s brain slowly adapting to her new anatomy. Everything seemed more and more natural, how her body should be, her steps forward becoming more confident with each step. Her head, so small and pink compared to the rest of her, felt strangely wrong, and weak. Anticipation grew as she chewed the nerplex more firmly, teeth beginning to shift and grow in her swollen jaw, pressing against each other.

Lizzie shook her head, feeling her skull stretching out, skin stretching tight against the bone. Her cranium thickened, broadening outwards, starting to form a dense armoured plate across the top of her head. Her scalp pulled tight, her hair drew back into her skin, blonde mixing with green to form a lurid yellow, tinged with dirty orange around the edge. She scrunched her eyes up, feeling flesh and bone slide against each other, her face awkwardly pushing outwards, nose flattening out, disappearing amongst wrinkled green flesh.

Part of her desperately wished she had a mirror, wondering just how much her head was changing, so sure it looked barely human now. Paranoid thoughts started to creep in: could she ever change back? Would Tim even know it was her? Would she?

Tim looked up at Lizzie, still changing but already so alien, the bulk of her transformed body seeming to fill the lab behind the guard. He still wanted to call out to her, urge her to spit out the gum before she was completely changed, but he sensed she was getting used to the changes. Changes which might be the only thing that could save them, and stop the ship from exploding. For now, all he could do was struggle.

The whites of her eyes shifted to a vibrant blue, growing far larger and shifting to the sides of her head. Her vision swam, her brain taking a few moments to adapt to a wider field of view. For a moment, the bright lights above blinded her, throwing Lizzie into a daze before her skull pushed outwards, eyes set deeper into her head, shielding them from the glare. Flesh surged from her brow, pushing out from where her eyebrows once were, short tentacles writhing about above her eyes.

Chewing became ever more difficult, molars slipping into her jaw as it pushed outwards, stretching and straining skin. Her jaw muscles shifted, bones offering greater leverage, sacrificing fine control for the ability to open her jaw wide… and bite down hard. Her mouth grew out wider, membranes forming at the edges, stretching to accommodate a wider jaw. Deeper down, she could sense her neck growing wider, as much to support her larger head as to help her swallow prey. Her tongue started to stretch out forward, strong and flexible, letting her tuck the gum away in the corner of her altered mouth. Soon, it became almost too large to fit inside her mouth, rolling outwards, toughened muscle sliding between what remained of her teeth, huge and pointed.

An alien heart pounded in Lizzie’s chest, large and powerful to match her giant form. Adrenaline, or something like it, surged through her body. Whatever that gum had done to her, whatever she had become, she sensed it had finished its work. She turned around, finding herself looking at a a bank of monitors. Powered off, the curved glass showed her reflection, distorting her already huge and alien form into something far more grotesque and monstrous. She leaned closer to the screen, staring at it with a sapphire eye, taking in her giant head, her powerful body, the tentacles writhing behind her.

Part of her, deep down and suppressed, was terrified of the sight, desperately yearning to return to her human body. But Lizzie gazed at herself with wonder and curiosity, testing each limb in turn, watching the way her tentacles lashed, how her muscles bulged under toughened skin. For a moment, she was lost in her own reflection, before a cry of pain brought her thoughts back to Tim, and the guards still holding him, punching him, hurting him. She took a few careful steps forward, grateful for the high ceiling of the lab as she hunched her immense bulk forward, her swaying tail balancing the weight of her head.

Lizzie felt a wave of concern for Tim, the desire to protect him, now that she knew that she could. But mixed with that she could feel something greater than rage welling up inside her as she surveyed the guards before her, now dwarfed by her towering form. She appreciated now just why Zoot had urged her to chew the weird gum, giving her the strength she needed to save Tim… and the world.

She took a slow step forward, trying to remain quiet, glad that the guards hadn’t seemed to have noticed her despite her monstrous new form. She flexed her arms, wondering how easily she could grab the guard, lamenting their short reach despite the powerful claws. But then, she realised, why did she have to use her arms? Blissfully unaware of the alien figure looming behind him, the guard moved his fist back, ready to strike. Seeing her change, Lizzie lashed out with a tentacle. The swing was inelegant, her mind not used to judging such movements, but the tentacle hit its mark, coiling around the guard’s arm and holding tight.

Pain and confusion gripped the guard’s mind as the tentacle gripped his arm, crushing muscle and bone. He barely had time to register something was wrong before he was lifted off his feet, the tentacle’s suckers keeping a firm grasp on his arm. Another surge of adrenaline rushed through Lizzie, the thrill of the catch. She wasn’t sure what surprised her more, how light the guard felt, or how much she liked seeing him hanging there. Enjoying herself far too much, she swung her prey around, turning to the other guard and snarling a challenge. An alien cry escaped her mouth, tongue flickering between sharp bared teeth, clawed hands flexing. The remaining guard stood paralysed in fear, still holding Tim’s arms, struggling to comprehend the alien before him, the dress the only clue Lizzie had ever been human.

Tim stared up in awe and wonder; even knowing it was Lizzie, some primal part of his brain was still struck with fear and apprehension. He watched as Lizzie tossed the guard back and forth between her tentacles, gripping him firmly around the waist and drawing back before flinging the puny human into a bank of consoles. Though with each pass back and forth Lizzie became more used to her new body, she was still surprised by the strength of her throw, carrying him through the terminal. The sound of his cries was silenced by the sound of monitors shattering, his body buried under a shower of sparks and debris.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction, a predatory thrill going through Lizzie’s mind. She swung back round to face the remaining guard, bearing down on him. Maybe it was the alien adrenaline surging through her body, but Lizzie was starting to enjoy herself more and more, the pleasure of hunting her prey. Lizzie cried out, an alien warcry, fuelled by the anger she felt towards the guard for hurting Tim, for standing in her way. As she bellowed, tentacles and claws spread out in a threat display, met only by the guard’s cries of terror.

Tim seized his chance, ducking out of the guard’s arms as the guard fled, away from the alien, towards the stairs that were to be his salvation. Reaching the base of them, and so sure such a large creature could not catch up, he glanced back only to see Lizzie leap forward, muscular legs propelling her through the air. She was not going to let her prey escape so easily, instinct carrying her forwards and upwards. Bounding off a desk, Lizzie clambered up the wall, using her multitude of limbs to brace herself as she raced the guard to the top of the stairs. Wrapping a tentacle around the railing, she swung herself over, standing over the petrified human. She grinned, as much as a Veenoxian could, thrilled to have beaten him. Paralysed by fear, confronted by the towering alien figure, transfixed by her gaping maw and sword-like teeth, the guard could only scream.

Pure alien instinct kicked in along with a deep hunger. Lizzie was unable - or unwilling - to stop herself as she lunged forward, mouth wide, tongue lashing out to grip the guard. Tim stared up at her, stunned, watching the guard get pulled into her mouth. Lizzie tipped her head back, jerking her mouth back and forth, the guard slipping down her throat and disappearing from view, swallowed whole. She could feel him inside her for a moment, stretching out what passed for a stomach, her alien metabolism making short work of her meal. A belch escaping her alien mouth, Lizzie cringing a little as she realised what she’d just done, conscious thoughts returning as the flood of instincts died down.

“Did you do something with your hair?” Tim’s voice cracked, a little uncertain how much Lizzie was in control now.

“Glad you noticed.” Her alien lips flexed, voice oddly guttural and gargled, her new mouth ill-suited to talking. She reached her tongue to the back of her jaw, wrapping the tip of it around the nerplex, glad to be rid of it. Tim saw the alien tongue roll out between her sharp teeth, the now rather misshapen black nerplex on the tip of it, Lizzie plucking it off her tongue with two alien fingers.

A wave of fatigue washed over Lizzie, the exertion of the past few moments beginning to take its toll on her body now once bulging muscles began to shrink. It felt almost like her body was deflating, shrinking away as the changes ran almost in reverse. Around her, the lab appeared to grew larger, a dizzying sensation adding to the delerium she already fault as her humanity slowly returned.

Her head changed back in stages, tension in her skin relaxing as the thick cranial plate began to fade away, for a moment leaving her bulbous, blue eyes standing proud on her face. Her shrinking skull protested, feeling for a moment like her eyes might be forced out of her before they, too, shrank down to their former side. Tim watched her blink a few times, the blue colour fading a bit more each time, Lizzie’s eyes gradually returning to their proper place. Her jaw shrank back, teeth protruding out for a moment before pulling back into her gums, her diminishing tongue brushing gently across what had moments before being jagged fangs. Molars returned, making her mouth feel whole again, rather glad her gums felt so numb as her teeth pushed their way back through.

She felt her dress relax, no longer stretched so tight across her bulky chest, a strangely relieving feeling that her body was returning to her former size. Behind her, she could feel her tentacles flailing between the straps of her dress. She tried to calm them down, though they no longer responded, unravelling nerves sending false impulses to their muscles. She dimly felt her tail collide with the solid metal of the stairs, pain dulled to a mere shadow, while the bones inside slowly pulled back and dissolved away.

Lizzie walked clumsily down the stairs on bulging legs, still thick with muscle even as they shrank away, colour gradually returning to the toad-like skin. Warmth flashed through her body, the feeling of human blood starting to flood her skin once again, green and yellow giving way to soft peach. Each step down the stairs felt like a different height, her alien limbs returning to human proportions, feeling increasingly at ease with herself again. Holding her arms out to steady herself, she barely registered her fingers growing back, her thumbs and index fingers returning to their old size as flesh flowed and returned, re-knitting itself together around regrowing bones.

With her human form mostly restored, the last alien muscle in her legs fading away, and her toes pulling back inside her ruined shoes there was a sudden rush of flesh as her tentacles pulled inside her. Thrown off balance by the shifting weight, she yelped, strumbing down the last few steps. Steading herself, she felt the last of her tail whipping around behind her, flexible flesh disappearing as the last few tail bones fused back together at the base of her hips.

Tim smiled with relief, watching the last of Lizzie’s alien skin fading away across her chest, visible through a gaping hole in a now much looser dress. Lizzie shook herself, still disorientated from her ordeal but so pleased to be back in her old body. She took a brief moment to perform a mental check of herself, satisfied there were no lingering tentacles, before reaching down to help Tim off the ground.

“I think I liked you better the other way…” Tim smiled a little, gazing at Lizzie with admiration.

“Oh really?” Lizzie swayed, her old balance not quite returned, waving the nerplex on the end of a finger. Grinning a little, she altered her voice to mimic her alien voice,

“Well, that be arranged…”